Church of Saint Catherine of Alexandria
It stands in front of the Spanish Quarter on a site where, according to Perdichizzi, the church of Santa Margherita (1622), already dedicated to Santa Marta (14th century) and attached to a hospital that would have housed San Francesco di Paola. Il Piaggia reports that during the siege of 1718 the building was demolished, so the current construction would go back to later years, perhaps preserving the original plan and denying the hypothesis of Ryolo about its possible Byzantine beginnings.
The current name was taken in 1719 when, during the Spanish siege, the homonymous church that stood at the Borgo was destroyed. It has a bare hut-like façade with architravata door and bell tower; on the side opens a door with ornate baroque. The interior is a rectangular vaulted space with three niches on the back wall. In the central niche is placed the statue of the martyr of Alessandria in white marble (1560); in the apsidiola on the right the statue of San Gaetano from the early seventeenth century, next to which there is the wooden statue of Sant’Antonio da Padova; in the left apse the statuette of Ecce Homo. A small crypt extends underground.
In the central niche, decorated with 18th century stucco, we find the marble statue of Santa Caterina, by Giuseppe Bottone (1560), sculptor from the workshop of Montorsoli who refers to the statue of the saint sculpted in collaboration with Martino Montanini for Forza d’Agrò.
